The present drawing dates from Lear's first trip to Europe in 1837. He travelled initially with his sister Ann, who stayed with him until he reached Brussels. Then he passed into Luxembourg. At the beginning of September he was in Switzerland and later that month he crossed over the border into Italy. Civita Castellana is about thirty miles north of Rome, where Lear lived from 1838 to 1848. An oil painting of Mount Soracte by Lear, seen closer to, was in the possession of Dr. G.S. Brock in 1911.